My high tech paint booth, or dont throw away old ladders

[DennisB]

My wife has bugged me to throw away this rickety old ladder, I just couldn't and proved it is a valuable shop tool. Yes this is how I paint my wings, yes I get gnats and small bugs if I don't turn the wings over quickly, insects sand out pretty well though. I thought I was going to have to re spray this set since I had some orange peel and bugs but I wet block sanded them at 24 hours cure time with 1000 and then machine 3000 and 5000 and they look great!

[lenb]

Dennis,
Can you explain a little more about the sanding process. What do you use for "machine 3000 and 5000"?

Love to know.

Thanks and the plane look awesome

Len

[DennisB]

I use a 3 inch random orbital hand held "buffer" made by "Griots Garage", it comes with a Velcro attachment, and there is an almost infinite amount of sanding pads available, anything under 1500 grit I sand by hand, I usually start machine sanding with 1500, but I was worried about taking off too much paint so jumped to a 3000 pad, and then go to 5000 which is the finest grit I know of, I should say they sell an extra foam pad cushion since the 3 inch pad mounted to the machine has no padding. I finish off with Meguiars #80 Speed Glaze using a Meguiars 3 inch foam polishing pad, I also like 3m Finesse-It 2 Finishing Material, 3m actually owns Meguiars but supposedly they develop their products independently, I don't believe it since I have products from both and though in different packaging they seem the same. All these supplies are available online, I will post some pics of all the items I have talked about and recommend an online store where they can be purchased. The finished wings look like your typical H-Models product to my eyes. If I am able to get the perfect paint color match I think a repair of a glass wing panel (H-Model for instance) could be done and no one would know.

[lenb]

excellent info Dennis.
Thanks